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Effects of land use changes on soil erosion in a fast developing area
Li, L.; Wang, Y. & Liu, C.
Abstract
Land use changes extensively affect soil erosion,
which is a great environmental concern. To evaluate
the effect of land use change on soil erosion in fast economic
developing areas, we studied land use changes of
Guangdong, China, from 2002 to 2009 using remote
sensing and estimated soil erosion using the Universal Soil
Loss Equation. We calculated the areas and percentage of
each land use type under different erosion intensity and
analyzed soil erosion changes caused by transitions of land
use types. In addition, the impact of land use change on soil
erosion in different river catchments was studied. Our
results show that forest and wasteland land conversions
induce substantial soil erosion, while transition from
wasteland to forest retards soil loss. This suggests that
vegetation cover changes significantly influence soil erosion.
Any conversion to wasteland causes soil erosion,
whereas expansion of forests and orchards mitigates it. The
most significant increase in soil erosion from 2002 to 2009
was found in the Beijiang catchment corresponding to the
transition from forest/orchard to built-up and wasteland.
Soil erosion in the Xijiang catchment accelerated in this
period due to the enormous reduction in orchard land. In
Hanjiang catchment, erosion was alleviated and vegetation
coverage greatly expanded owing to considerable transitions
from wasteland and cropland to orchards. Field
investigations validated our estimations and proved the
applicability of this method. Measures including protecting
vegetation, strict control of mining as well as reasonable
urban planning should be taken to prevent successive soil
erosion.
Keywords
Economic development; Land-cover conversion; River catchments; Soil loss; Universal Soil Loss Equation
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